This invention relates to a music game system in which music is made audible to a game player, and particularly to a music game system in which a plurality of music game apparatus are connected via a communication path so that a plurality of game players can simultaneously enjoy the game.
Quite many game systems have been proposed. These game systems include systems comprised of a special apparatus for home use and a television monitor and systems comprised of a special apparatus for commercial use, a personal computer or a workstation, a display and a sound output device. These systems are generally provided with a controller operated by a game player, a storage medium storing a game program, a CPU for executing controls to generate sounds and images based on the game program, an image processor for generating images, an audio processor for generating sounds, a monitor for displaying images, and a loudspeaker for making the sounds audible. CD-ROMs, semiconductor memories, cassettes containing built-in semiconductor memories, etc. are frequently used as the storage medium.
Among these game systems, especially comprised of a special apparatus for commercial use, those in which a plurality of game apparatus are connected by a communication line so that a plurality of game players can simultaneously enjoy a game are known. With this game system, a plurality of game players can compete by playing the same game.
In the above conventional game systems, it has been a general practice for a plurality of game players to simultaneously start the game. Particularly, known music games including dancing games in which music is played as a background music are only those which are simultaneously started by all game participants by starting the reproduction of a music number from the beginning. There has not been developed any game system in which, after a certain game player started a game, another game player can participate in the game in the middle of the music number.